The industrial diseases : their importance and methods of study / by W. Gilman Thompson.

  • Thompson, W. Gilman (William Gilman), 1856-1927.
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The industrial diseases : their importance and methods of study / by W. Gilman Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    . diagnosed and reported in many cases by laymen, but the phy- sician is usually the only one who can determine the nature and extent of industrial diseases, and rightly apportion the influence, for example, of a metal poison in producing arteriosclerosis or nephritis, as compared with such coincident factors as alcoholism and syphilis. It is a great mistake to rush hastily into remedial legislation until we possess more definite knowledge of the prevalence and seriousness of the diseases caused by industry. Up to the present time, in the United States, legislation, with only one or two exceptions, has taken the form, as far as industrial diseases are concerned, of attempting to regulate factory ventila- tion, a problem which is of extreme difficulty owing to the lack of universally accepted standards. About twenty states have vague laws requiring that factories shall be “well ventilated” or ■“sufficiently ventilated,” and ten states specify a minimum cubic air space per occupant. New York State is the only one which provides for systematic analysis of factory air with publication of the results, and Illinois has made good progress in maintaining compulsory standards of air purity. With the exception of these two states, together with New Jersey and Massachusetts, there has been little or no scientific factory inspection in the whole country, designed specifically to control industrial diseases. In the states mentioned, however, some very valuable intensive studies have been made by official inspectors of special industries, notably of the lead, pottery and pearl button industries, as well as those involving the use of mercury and phosphorus. Although statistics of the industrial diseases are as yet very meagre in this country, I am able to present a sufficient number to be convincing that the subject amply merits all the attention which is being given to it, and I will refer briefly to a few of the rnore important industrial disease hazards. There are about 150 distinct occupations in which lead poisoning is prevalent, and 27 in which arsenic constitutes the hazard, although the substitution of anahne dyes has largely replaced the use of the latter substance in the coloring of wall papers and artificial flowers. Dr. John B. Andrews, in Bulletin, 95, of the State Bureau of Labor reported 60 fatal cases of lead poisoning occuring in New ork State in 1909-10. Three more fatal cases recently occurred m a single smelting establishment in New York City. Dr E. E. Pratt, investigating for the Committee of the Labor Legislation Association, recently found eighteen cases of lead poisoning among men employed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to scrape red paint from the hulls of the battleships. Three of these men came to my clinic with lead palsy.